Idina Menzel: 5 Things You Don’t Know About Taye Diggs’ Ex

Fans were so sad to hear that Taye and Idina are separating after 10 years of marriage. While Taye is a household name, you may be less familiar with Idina — a Tony Award-winning Broadway star — so we’ve rounded up some little-known facts about the stunning singer, songwriter and actress.

Idina Menzel rose to fame for her inspired performance as Maureen Johnson in the Broadway musical Rent — which is also where she met and fell in love with co-star Taye Diggs in 1995. Idina’s marriage may be cooling down, but her career has never been hotter! After winning a Tony Award for her role as Elphaba in the Broadway blockbuster Wicked, Idina branched out to television and film roles, starring as Lea Michele‘s character’s mother on Glee, and as the voice of Queen Elsa in Frozen.

Idina Menzel: 5 Things You Don’t Know About Taye Diggs’ Ex

1. Idina, 42, has been singing professionally since she was 15 years old, when she began working as a wedding and bar mitzvah singer. She continued this job while she was a student at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

2. Idina fell through a trap door and cracked her rib during her second-to-last performance of Wicked in 2005. Though the injury prevented her from performing in her final show the next night, Idina triumphantly took the stage at the end of the show to sing her final song out of costume. She got a five-minute standing ovation — wow!

3. You may know that Idina plays the biological mother of Lea Michele’s character Rachel Berry on Glee but do know why she was cast? When the series first premiered, Glee fans couldn’t help but notice the striking resemblance between Lea and Idina. Idina reached out to producers to express interest in playing Lea’s mother, and the next thing we knew the on-screen mom and daughter duo were belting out an amazing slow version of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face“!

4. Idina has some famous fans! She performed the Broadway hits “Defying Gravity” and “What I Did For Love” in front of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at concert at the White House in 2010.

5. Idina and Taye have a Yorkshire Terrier named Sammy Davis Jr., and two cats named Ella and Coltrane, who they call their “jazz cats” because they were named after jazz giants Ella Fitzgerald and John Coltrane. How clever!

So what do YOU think, HollywoodLifers? Are you sad about Idina and Taye’s split? Let us know.